Government Funding

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, last night was a great night for America and a five-alarm fire for Donald Trump and Republicans. The Republicans' high-cost house is on fire, and they have only got themselves to blame.

As loudly and clearly as they could have, the American people said last night: Enough is enough--enough with Donald Trump's tariffs, which are overwhelmingly being paid for by working people and small businesses; enough with Republicans' relentless attack on healthcare, where people are seeing their premiums go up by thousands of dollars, even each month, and they may have to be without healthcare altogether.

Last night was a sign that if Republicans continue with their failed policies, their majorities are at risk, including here in this Senate Chamber. The election showed that Democratic control of the Senate is much closer than people and prognosticators realize.

So let me say it again: Republicans' high-cost house is on fire, and they have only got themselves to blame.

By the way, that is not just my opinion; it is Donald Trump's opinion. Last night, he said that the shutdown is a negative factor for the Republicans. When addressing why he had lost, this is what Trump said:

The shutdown was a big factor, negative for Republicans.

And let me read what Trump said last night. This is Donald Trump speaking:

TRUMP WASN'T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT.

That is what Trump said. Trump admits that the Republican shutdown is hurting him and his party.

The President is right. Americans realize Republicans are responsible for this awful shutdown, now the longest, officially, in history--what a shameless milestone. Donald Trump has now presided over the longest and second longest shutdowns ever, and he only--only--has himself to blame.

When Leader Jeffries and I met with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, last month, we warned him that this would happen. We warned the President of the consequences of ignoring Democrats, ignoring the American people, ignoring the healthcare crisis. We warned the President that ignoring Democrats and insisting on zero negotiations was a recipe for disaster and would come back to haunt him.

Well, Republicans shouldn't ignore us anymore, for their own good and the country's good.

So, this morning, Leader Jeffries and I once again demanded a meeting with the President. It is time to sit down and negotiate with Democrats to bring this Republican shutdown to an end, we told the President. We have been asking for a meeting for weeks and even months, but now the election results ought to send a much needed bolt of lightning to Donald Trump that he should meet with us to end this crisis--his shutdown, which he admits hurt him badly in the elections.

It is time to hold a bipartisan meeting of legislative leaders to reopen the government. It is time to fix the ACA premium emergency that is now upon us. Democrats are ready to meet anytime, anywhere, anyplace.

Donald Trump ignores us at his own political peril because the takeaway from last night was simply unmistakable. Democrats swept in States last night across the country, red and blue alike. Democrats won overwhelmingly by more than anyone ever thought in New Jersey and Virginia. Democrats won in Mississippi and won in New York and Pennsylvania and in Georgia.

Democrats won in statewide races, but it went deeper than that. We won in lots of local races too: mayoral races, State supreme court races, ballot measures, and even historic swings in the Georgia Public Service Commission, where two Democrats were elected statewide, I believe.

Why did Democrats do so well? Because Americans are fed up with Republicans shooting their costs through the roof, particularly on healthcare, on tariffs, and on their electric bills. And Americans saw that Democrats are the ones fighting for them, fighting for lower healthcare costs, fighting for working families.

While all this is happening, what is Donald Trump doing? Depriving hungry Americans of their SNAP benefits? Telling children--hungry children--we are going to cut off your food and use you as a pawn in this shutdown, which the Republicans have caused? Telling the elderly who depend on that SNAP money to adequately feed themselves, the heck with you? Telling a veteran who has PTSD or a worker who is unemployed that we are not going to give you food? How callous, how cruel, how mean, how vindictive, and how calculatingly wrong.

Americans saw the contrast between Democrats and Republicans in full effect last night. They saw that Trump is treating Americans, particularly needy Americans, as political pawns during the shutdown.

From one end of the country to the other, including battleground States, Democrats, Independents, and even Republicans rejected Donald Trump's policies and rejected hard-right elected officials.

And let me say something else. After last night, Donald Trump ought to learn that his petty vindictiveness doesn't work. Here is one glaring example: He tried to ax Federal funding for the Gateway Tunnel between New York and New Jersey--the biggest public works project in the country, employing tens of thousands of workers and ensuring continued prosperity and good transportation in the entire Northeast corridor. But he axed the funds, and his axing the funds was aimed, in his mind, at Democratic leaders like Leader Jeffries and me. In the end, it totally backfired and became a big factor for voters making their decisions in New Jersey and electing Mikie Sherrill by an amazing 13 percentage points. One of the main issues in that campaign was Donald Trump's vindictiveness in cutting off this tunnel and trying to use it--again--and all the workers as a hostage.

So let me say it again. Last night serves as a five-alarm fire for Republicans, a warning from the American people. They are tired of Donald Trump raising people's costs, raising healthcare costs, ignoring the needs of the people.

The right way forward for Republicans--and for all of America--is to negotiate with Democrats to reopen the government and extend the ACA premium tax credits. The American people have spoken: Enough is enough. U.S. Supreme Court

Mr. President, on SCOTUS and tariffs, which is being argued by the Supreme Court, right now as we speak, after an overwhelming rejection of the Trump Republican agenda at the polls, this morning, Donald Trump's lawyers are at the Supreme Court trying to argue his global tariffs are legal. They are illegal, but they are arguing that they are legal.

It is hard to imagine a worse morning after for Donald Trump and Republicans than to have to go to the Supreme Court and defend these tariffs, which are dramatically raising Americans' costs. That is why Republicans were so shellacked last night.

Maybe the Supreme Court will put Donald Trump and Republicans out of their tariff misery by declaring Trump's tariffs illegal--which, of course, we know they are--because Donald Trump's tariffs have been one of the biggest tax hikes on American families in recent memory.

Poll after poll shows that Americans are paying more at the grocery store, that they blame Trump for the rising taxes, and they disapprove of his tariffs.

The Supreme Court should do the right thing and strike down Trump's tariffs before those tariffs spiral our economy into an even bigger crisis.

If our democracy is to mean anything at all, we should remember the Constitution is clear, clear--clear as a bell, clear as the Liberty Bell: The power to tax and tariff resides in Congress, not the President, not by unilateral power, and not based on some BS ``emergency'' declaration. Donald Trump is not a King. He is bound by the Constitution and by his oath to protect the American people and uphold the rule of law.

Today, the Court should make clear that Donald Trump is not above the law.

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